5 ms·

I saw a similar article like this last month or so. This is a more realistic article on the subject: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2019/03/11/renting-lux

I saw a similar article like this last month or so. This is a more realistic article on the subject: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2019/03/11/renting-luxury-mansion-vancouver-bc/ https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2019/03/11/renting-luxury... Note that I've tried figuring out where to rent these rooms and reaching out but so far have remained fruitless.

wemdyjreichert 7y ago
Is it just me or has the real estate market become more volatile in recent times? That and the economy over all. I can only imagine how much worse it much be in other nations. America is often less volatile as the world's largest economy, but I know Europe is still stuck with negative interest rates and didn't manage to raise them into positive territory this expansion.
- core-questions 7y ago
  > negative interest rates Wait, I don't get this. Do I get paid to take out a mortgage?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - wemdyjreichert 7y ago
    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/negative-interest-rate-policy-nirp.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/negative-interest-rate-... It's an extreme expansionary policy designed to keep the economy afloat by making people pay money to keep it in banks. Normally this is done by dropping interest rates below inflation; this is the nuclear option for economies. The fact that they are still stuck on this is not a good sign for what may happen to Europe next recession. This is one of the inherent limitations of a shared currency: Greece needs expansion; Germany needs contraction. Help one; harm the other. It's very difficult to do the kind of things America (or most other nations) can do with Europe for this reason.
  - HansLandaa 7y ago
    He's likely referring to negative real interest rates where inflation is higher than the interest rate.
  - Simon_says 7y ago
    No, but your bank will charge you to store your money.
    - xiphias2 7y ago
      Also the bank will get payed, it just doesn't pass the benefits.
  - collyw 7y ago
    In Europe and we took out a mortgage last year. The rate at which the bank gets money from the central bank is negative, and your local bank adds on 1.5 to that (for a variable) rate from what i remember, so overall the rate was 0.8% I think. So you don't get paid, but you do get subsidized.
- dashundchen 7y ago
  It does seem off. I live in a US region with essentially no population growth, slow job and wage growth, and a lot of vacant buildings and land. Since the financial crisis ended, real estate price records are broken every year and see neighborhoods that have double through quadrupled in the past 15 years. At the same time new apartments have gone up, big property companies have formed and consolidated a lot of multi-unit buildings previously owned by small time owners. I know interest rates, especially on mortgages, were historically low which caused some inflation. But it honestly baffles me how it could be anything but a bubble.
- mattnewport 7y ago
  I think describing this just as volatility somewhat misses the fact that this is the new rules and taxes in Vancouver working as designed. The steep tax on empty properties was explicitly intended to bring down house prices and reduce rents / increase vacancy rates and it seems like it is actually working, although I've also heard it's become more difficult for potential buyers to get their money out of China recently which may also be a contributing factor.
  - wemdyjreichert 7y ago
    Apologies for being unclear; I'm referring to the broader real-estate market. I can't speak to Canada, but I seem to see this in America (increased volatility) in real estate and the broader economy over all.
msie 7y ago
It's the sad state of reporting nowadays.
- dashundchen 7y ago
  If you read the whole article it's clear that "college students in mansions" is not what the author is really writing about. Even the subtitle makes this clear: > Globe-trotting landlords can avoid vacancy taxes by renting. It’s the latest twist for a housing market down 8.5% from its peak. The article really just uses "students renting mansions" as two of several anecdotes accompanying the story. The subject of the article is that Vancouver's taxes on foreign owned investment property are pushing down prices on property, and a rental loophole that is also affecting the rental market. Headlines have always been set by editors to catch eyes and now clicks. I don't think that makes the reporting any worse. Perhaps a more appropriate title could have been set on HN but from what I understand the guideline is to use the original title.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
hombre_fatal 7y ago
I lived in a fraternity for a year when I attended uni. At least a fraternity has funds to go after and pledge labor to clean the place. A random mix of college-aged kids is one of the worst deals as a land lord because they are guaranteed to be transient. I don't blame anyone who refuses to rent their mansion to them.
- vonseel 7y ago
  When I was a student I had a different viewpoint on this, but it all depends on the people, and putting everyone in one bucket is rarely accurate. Kids whose parents sign their leases and pay their rents will almost never fail to pay rent, and if you do have a problem, their parents are almost always going to save their asses in fear of breaching contract. At least here in Texas, contracts and tenancy laws greatly favor property owners. As you can imagine, there’s the risk of having people damage walls / floors / plumbing, but in my experience that stuff is mostly trivial to repair and that is what damage and security deposits are partially intended to cover. When I was a student I repaired drywall at every place I lived, some minor, some major, and was never charged a dime at move-out. Most new apartments have a standard procedure of repainting between every tenant.
  - veryworried 7y ago
    Good luck repairing the level 5 drywall finish these mansions tend to have.
  - fhbdukfrh 7y ago
    Renter laws in Canada sound very different than Texas. The tenant acts tend to favor the renter I've the landlord in almost all cases. You can debate if this is good or bad, but being a residential landlord is not the same as commercial property
- bluntfang 7y ago
  Being a landlord is a choice. Discrimination based on age is a thing. If you don't like certain types of people, you can choose not to take advantage of people with literal rent-seeking behavior, then stop being a landlord and sell your property.
avip 7y ago
When I was renting in Van, 90% of landlords hanged-up immediately after asking how many kids I have. The idea they would lease to a bunch of random doped teens is utterly ridiculous. [E: that was before EHT]
- notatoad 7y ago
  were you renting in Vancouver before or after the vacant property tax went into effect? regardless, i suspect most of these "college kids are renting mansions" stories omit the "from their rich parent's friends" part of the story.
- ravenstine 7y ago
  I dunno, it seems that these days the accepted way to make money is by nickel and dimeing poor people. How are they supposed to make bank on a family w/ kids that won't constantly owe extra due to delinquent payments? Just a theory, seeing as how the poor and the financially-irresponsible seem to be the best customers of banks and creditors. Might as well be the same for renters.
  - vonseel 7y ago
    That is an incredibly low view of people and has not been my experience at all in life or as a renter.
  - AWildC182 7y ago
    I think most developed NA cities have pretty strict tenant protection laws that, even if failing to actually protect tenants, at least guarantee you'll take some loss from tenants that don't pay and therefore make such activities undesirable. This seemed to be a thing with the slumlords of the past but I bet it's just not profitable enough right now.
  - ralusek 7y ago
    Nickel and dimeing poor people and collecting delinquent payments is definitely not something that most landlords want to pursue as a business model. Morality aside, that is a very labor intensive business to be in, and relies on economies of scale to balance out those without the ability to follow through on payments.

wemdyjreichert 7y ago

Is it just me or has the real estate market become more volatile in recent times? That and the economy over all. I can only imagine how much worse it much be in other nations. America is often less volatile as the world's largest economy, but I know Europe is still stuck with negative interest rates and didn't manage to raise them into positive territory this expansion.

core-questions 7y ago
> negative interest rates Wait, I don't get this. Do I get paid to take out a mortgage?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- wemdyjreichert 7y ago
  https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/negative-interest-rate-policy-nirp.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/negative-interest-rate-... It's an extreme expansionary policy designed to keep the economy afloat by making people pay money to keep it in banks. Normally this is done by dropping interest rates below inflation; this is the nuclear option for economies. The fact that they are still stuck on this is not a good sign for what may happen to Europe next recession. This is one of the inherent limitations of a shared currency: Greece needs expansion; Germany needs contraction. Help one; harm the other. It's very difficult to do the kind of things America (or most other nations) can do with Europe for this reason.
- HansLandaa 7y ago
  He's likely referring to negative real interest rates where inflation is higher than the interest rate.
- Simon_says 7y ago
  No, but your bank will charge you to store your money.
  - xiphias2 7y ago
    Also the bank will get payed, it just doesn't pass the benefits.
- collyw 7y ago
  In Europe and we took out a mortgage last year. The rate at which the bank gets money from the central bank is negative, and your local bank adds on 1.5 to that (for a variable) rate from what i remember, so overall the rate was 0.8% I think. So you don't get paid, but you do get subsidized.
dashundchen 7y ago
It does seem off. I live in a US region with essentially no population growth, slow job and wage growth, and a lot of vacant buildings and land. Since the financial crisis ended, real estate price records are broken every year and see neighborhoods that have double through quadrupled in the past 15 years. At the same time new apartments have gone up, big property companies have formed and consolidated a lot of multi-unit buildings previously owned by small time owners. I know interest rates, especially on mortgages, were historically low which caused some inflation. But it honestly baffles me how it could be anything but a bubble.
mattnewport 7y ago
I think describing this just as volatility somewhat misses the fact that this is the new rules and taxes in Vancouver working as designed. The steep tax on empty properties was explicitly intended to bring down house prices and reduce rents / increase vacancy rates and it seems like it is actually working, although I've also heard it's become more difficult for potential buyers to get their money out of China recently which may also be a contributing factor.
- wemdyjreichert 7y ago
  Apologies for being unclear; I'm referring to the broader real-estate market. I can't speak to Canada, but I seem to see this in America (increased volatility) in real estate and the broader economy over all.

msie 7y ago

It's the sad state of reporting nowadays.

dashundchen 7y ago
If you read the whole article it's clear that "college students in mansions" is not what the author is really writing about. Even the subtitle makes this clear: > Globe-trotting landlords can avoid vacancy taxes by renting. It’s the latest twist for a housing market down 8.5% from its peak. The article really just uses "students renting mansions" as two of several anecdotes accompanying the story. The subject of the article is that Vancouver's taxes on foreign owned investment property are pushing down prices on property, and a rental loophole that is also affecting the rental market. Headlines have always been set by editors to catch eyes and now clicks. I don't think that makes the reporting any worse. Perhaps a more appropriate title could have been set on HN but from what I understand the guideline is to use the original title.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

hombre_fatal 7y ago

I lived in a fraternity for a year when I attended uni. At least a fraternity has funds to go after and pledge labor to clean the place. A random mix of college-aged kids is one of the worst deals as a land lord because they are guaranteed to be transient. I don't blame anyone who refuses to rent their mansion to them.

vonseel 7y ago
When I was a student I had a different viewpoint on this, but it all depends on the people, and putting everyone in one bucket is rarely accurate. Kids whose parents sign their leases and pay their rents will almost never fail to pay rent, and if you do have a problem, their parents are almost always going to save their asses in fear of breaching contract. At least here in Texas, contracts and tenancy laws greatly favor property owners. As you can imagine, there’s the risk of having people damage walls / floors / plumbing, but in my experience that stuff is mostly trivial to repair and that is what damage and security deposits are partially intended to cover. When I was a student I repaired drywall at every place I lived, some minor, some major, and was never charged a dime at move-out. Most new apartments have a standard procedure of repainting between every tenant.
- veryworried 7y ago
  Good luck repairing the level 5 drywall finish these mansions tend to have.
- fhbdukfrh 7y ago
  Renter laws in Canada sound very different than Texas. The tenant acts tend to favor the renter I've the landlord in almost all cases. You can debate if this is good or bad, but being a residential landlord is not the same as commercial property
bluntfang 7y ago
Being a landlord is a choice. Discrimination based on age is a thing. If you don't like certain types of people, you can choose not to take advantage of people with literal rent-seeking behavior, then stop being a landlord and sell your property.

avip 7y ago

When I was renting in Van, 90% of landlords hanged-up immediately after asking how many kids I have. The idea they would lease to a bunch of random doped teens is utterly ridiculous. [E: that was before EHT]

notatoad 7y ago
were you renting in Vancouver before or after the vacant property tax went into effect? regardless, i suspect most of these "college kids are renting mansions" stories omit the "from their rich parent's friends" part of the story.
ravenstine 7y ago
I dunno, it seems that these days the accepted way to make money is by nickel and dimeing poor people. How are they supposed to make bank on a family w/ kids that won't constantly owe extra due to delinquent payments? Just a theory, seeing as how the poor and the financially-irresponsible seem to be the best customers of banks and creditors. Might as well be the same for renters.
- vonseel 7y ago
  That is an incredibly low view of people and has not been my experience at all in life or as a renter.
- AWildC182 7y ago
  I think most developed NA cities have pretty strict tenant protection laws that, even if failing to actually protect tenants, at least guarantee you'll take some loss from tenants that don't pay and therefore make such activities undesirable. This seemed to be a thing with the slumlords of the past but I bet it's just not profitable enough right now.
- ralusek 7y ago
  Nickel and dimeing poor people and collecting delinquent payments is definitely not something that most landlords want to pursue as a business model. Morality aside, that is a very labor intensive business to be in, and relies on economies of scale to balance out those without the ability to follow through on payments.